1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an adjustable aperture seal system adapted to permit the introduction of surgical instrumentation into a patient's body.
2. Background of Related Art
Minimally invasive surgical procedures, such as laparoscopic surgery, result in reduced trauma for a patient than an equivalent open procedure. In this procedure, trocar assemblies including narrow hollow tubes called cannula are inserted into small incisions made into a patient's skin by a trocar. Elongated surgical instruments are inserted into the patient's body cavity through the cannula.
Often the patient's body cavity has been insufflated with carbon dioxide to separate the cavity wall from the internal organs therein. This creates a working and a viewing space. Therefore, a tight seal must be maintained between the body cavity and the outside environment.
Maintaining such a seal is complicated since it is often desirable to insert and remove several surgical instruments through one cannula in a single surgical procedure. While it is ideal to use the smallest available surgical instruments, some complex instruments may not be able to fit inside such a small cannula. The seal that is used must be sized to receive the instrument.
Ideally, a surgeon should be able to use one seal system to accommodate all the instruments used during the surgical procedure. The known seals are deficient in numerous ways, including an inability to accommodate instrumentation or various sizes and inability to preserve the integrity of the seal as instrumentation is manipulated. Accordingly, the current disclosure provides a seal device that resolves these shortcomings.